Lemons or Lemonade

by woodmanone

If you have read any of my other stories you know that they have no explicit sex scenes; this story is no exception.

Constructive comments or critiques are solicited and welcome. If you like or even dislike the story please take the time to comment on it or send me an email. It would be nice if you could rate or vote on the story too. Your comments and ratings help me to learn and grow as a writer.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story and please enjoy.

There are some people who say "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I say "where the hell is the water and sugar to go with these damn lemons?" I'm not a pessimist, just a realist. It's all well and good to look for a silver lining in the storm but don't forget you have to get through the damn storm to get to it.

Life handed me lemons 21 years ago. I was 25 when life or fate or the gods decided to punch me in the stomach and when I bent over to kick me in the ass and bury me in lemons. This is the story of how I tried to make lemonade for all those years.

By the way, my name is Ray Kelly. For a Computer Science major I keep in good shape by running for a few miles almost every morning to keep my weight under 200.

I was alone and on my own since I was 17. My parents had been killed when I was a senior in high school so I had to work my way through college. I guess I'm not your stereotypical IT nerd.

I had several different jobs during my four years at college. I worked at whatever job was available that paid the most; from a loading dock at UPS to working on the "kill" floor of a slaughter house.

Between my classes and my jobs I didn't have much time for dating but I don't think I would have had too much problem getting dates. I'm not a movie star but at 6 feet with brown hair and blue eyes I was more than presentable. I've been told my best feature was my crazy eyes that seemed to become more piercing, depending on my mood.

Even if I would have had the time, I don't think I would have spent the money for dating; I had to work too hard for it. I guess I became a little shy around women because of my lack of interaction with them.

I was 22 and fresh out of college with a brand new Computer Science degree. The first interview for employment was also my last interview. ABC Construction offered me a position with the company during that meeting.

Maybe I could have found another job but ABC offered a good salary with room for advancement in a company with divisions all over the United States, so I accepted the position in their IT support office located in Clayton, a suburb of St. Louis.

My first day on the job I was very lucky, twice. First my new boss was a really good guy; he wanted me to do well and helped me in every way he could. The second piece of luck was meeting Elizabeth Ann Bailey. She was friendly and very helpful to the new guy too. All in all it was a very good first day.

I saw "Beth" several times a week as our areas of responsibility overlapped. There were no flirting or romantic little asides or lines with double meanings or anything like that. It was just two colleagues working together and enjoying doing so.

One of the reasons that I never thought about "putting a move" on Beth was that I felt she was out of my league. I'm not a bad looking guy but Beth was stunning. She was so beautiful that when she entered room men and some women would stop talking and stare at her. Beth was a brown eyed blond from Amarillo, Texas with long legs and a body just this side of voluptuous.

Her parents had moved from Texas to Missouri when she was twelve. She had been living "up north" for ten years but she still had that Texas drawl in her voice. Words and sayings such as: y'all, hissy fit, walking in tall cotton, and all hat no cattle among others would slip into her conversations. I also used a few "country" sayings as I had grown up in southern Missouri.

Lots of times Beth or I would have to explain what was meant when she or I used one of our down home sayings. It was really funny, some of these "city folk" didn't understand the little girl from Texas or the young man from southern Missouri.

After two months of working together, Beth surprised me one day by joining me at lunch in the company cafeteria. She came into the eating area, looked around, spotted me and headed my way. Beth sat down, looked at me for a long time and then smiled and shook her head.

"You're not going to do it are you? You're going to make me do all the work," she said with a smile.

"I'm sorry Beth, was there something I forget to do?" The last thing I wanted to do was to disappoint her. I was already half ass in love with her.

She shook her head and said, "Well if y'all won't do it, I guess I have to." The look she gave me with her big brown eyes made my heart start beating a little faster.

"What are you talking about?" I was at a loss as to what she was talking about.

"If you won't ask me for a date, I'll just have to ask you. Ray would you like to take me to dinner tomorrow night?" Now Beth was grinning at me as I tried to answer her. "Well would you?"

"I ... I ... I... ," my voice stuttered. It took a few seconds for me to gain control. "Yes I would, very much Beth." I was still surprised at the invitation.

That dinner was the beginning of a romance that built in depth and intensity every time we were together. We learned a lot about each other on our dates; I guess that's what dating is for after all. Politically Beth was a little right of center and I thought she was a little too liberal. Neither of us liked or believed in the politicians in Washington; we thought that the ones on the state level were just as bad.

We liked the same music and the same type of movies; John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were our favorites. Our taste in food was very similar, we both preferred good simple food as opposed to artsy fartsy cuisine. Our tenth date was a weekend trip to my farm in south central Missouri. Well actually it belongs to my older brother Thomas and me. The trip from St. Louis to the farm took about 4 hours.

My parents had left the 600 acres and huge house to us as equal partners. Thomas and his wife, Julie, and their kids Brian and Sally lived on and worked the farm. Beth was a hit with all of my family. My brother told me after our first evening with them that if I let her get away he would shoot me to put me out of my misery.

That first evening, Beth and I were set up in separate rooms. That was my idea because I didn't want Beth to think that I had invited her to the farm just to get her into bed. Everyone went to bed around 11:00 but around midnight Beth tip toed into my room and into my bed. That was the first time that we were intimate. In other words we went at it like bunnies. Beth was enthusiastic and I couldn't have been more excited.

I thought she would sneak back to her room before morning, but she stayed put and said, "Who are we trying to kid?"

The next morning when we awoke in each other's arms, I asked Beth to marry me. I guess the fact that we didn't get out of bed until almost noon was the way that she said yes.

We finally strolled into the kitchen just as Julie was putting lunch on the table for Thomas. They both started to laugh at the look on our faces. I think it embarrassed Beth a little but I was strutting around like a peacock.

Thomas couldn't help himself; he just had to tease me a little. "Y'all might want to oil those squeaky springs on the bed before tonight. I would like to get a little sleep because the noise kept me up most of last night. Oops, bad choice of words I guess."

"Thomas, behave yourself," Julie scolded him laughing as she did.

"Just trying to keep up with you big brother," I teased him back. Beth and Julie giggled and I grabbed Beth in a bear hug. "We are going to get married as soon as possible," I told them.

Our wedding was put together in a hurry for no reason except that we didn't want to wait any longer than necessary. I had only been at ABC for a few months so I couldn't take any time off. If I could have taken a week off and if we had the money to spare we would have gone to Las Vegas and been married there.

We were married at a little church close to the downtown area where we worked. Neither of us had any real deep religious beliefs so we let the minister at the church perform the ceremony. Thomas was my best man and my boss acted as an usher for us. He was as close to a friend as I had at work or otherwise.

Beth's maid of honor was Julie and her kids were the ring bearer and flower girl. The guest list was very small, twenty people at most. Beth walked down the aisle by herself, because her parents were on an extended vacation in Europe and either couldn't or wouldn't come back for her wedding. That surprised and pissed me off.

I think I was more upset about it than Beth. I spent the last six years of my life without parents and I couldn't believe that her folks wouldn't come to their daughter's wedding. They did send a large check as a wedding present. Beth was apparently more upset than she let on.

"If they think they can pay me off like some damn ranch hand, their drilling a dry well." she said. Her eyes were like a cold laser as she looked at the check and then tore it into several pieces. Turning to Julie, she said, "Send the pieces back to them for me please. I'm going to be busy for the next few days."

I realized that as much as I loved her, Beth had depths to her that I hadn't discovered yet. It was the first time I had seen her angry. I hope I never see her anger directed at me, I thought. She would be a handful if she was mad.